Check out the technical interview of Dorian Heller, a motion designer working with ‘Heller Studios’ out of Seattle, WA. Typically you will find him submerged in After Effects creating animations, or in Premiere Pro, working on an edit.
Dorian Heller has been in the industry for over 5 years. One of his clients, ArenaNet, had a shoot in Boston and needed some heavy After Effects comping and green screen removal. Footage was transferred throughout the day back to Seattle and Dorian worked over night to get the project finished up. See the finished result here:
Following is the major notes from the interview of Dorian Heller.
How did you thrived yourself into the VFX and Motion Graphics field ?
I actually started watching tutorials in high school. I liked being able to breakdown FX work and see the results and realized it was something I could do as a career. I started getting into motion graphics around the same time, and found myself loving animation as well.
What are the major services your studio is providing ?
We mostly provide Adobe After Effects work, such as Rotoscoping, Chroma removal (Green screen / Blue Screen), Lower thirds etc. We also provide shooting and editing capabilities.
Who are your major clients?
Microsoft, Cisco Networks, IBM and YouTube are some of our biggest clients.
How do you think concept for motion graphics ?
Usually we ask, what are they trying to say. If there is a voice over, we usually look at that and concept out an idea from it. For example, if they are talking about something global, we may try to show a globe, but do it in a clever way.
Which tools (native and 3rd party plug in) do you use most in Adobe After Effects and Maxon CINEMA 4D (C4D) ?
After Effects and CINEMA 4D have a great array of plugins that help speed up my time. For After Effects, I love AE Script’s True Comp Duplicator and Ray Dynamic Color. I love the Trapcode suite, the Frischluft effects, as well as ReelSmart Motion Blur (RSMB).
For C4D, I really like a lot of the Greyscale Gorilla plugins, like HDRI Studio Pack. I also really like X-Particles.
Tell us more about your cohesion with Adobe for After Effects Seattle Meet Ups.
Just over two years ago Topher Welsh (visualfxtuts.com) approached me with the opportunity to help run the group. Since then we’ve brought in the likes of Tim Clapham (helloluxx.com), Cinesaurus (cinesaurus.com) and even the After Effects Team from Adobe.
What are your next goals ?
Having multiple years of experience creating motion graphics, and editing, I’m looking to take more of a Creative Director role. Currently I manage two other artists and sometimes more, as we hire freelancers, but ideally I would be managing a team (+20) artists and make sure they are all on the right track.
Check out Heller Studios for VFX tutorials and other resources.
You will love to amazing motion graphics and creatives demo reel of Dorian on his portfolio site Dorian Heller.